Gorgeous galaxies and stunning stars make up this selection of pictures from the shortlisted entries for this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 15 September, and an exhibition of the winning images will be will be displayed in a free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Centre from 17 September. Here: “Seven Magic Points”. The rusty red swirls of the circular, iron sculpture Seven Magic Points in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above. (Photo by Rune Engebø/Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016/National Maritime Museum)

In this picture taken Thursday, August 4, 2016, seal Tristan looks out of a basket while being released into the North Sea together with others at the beach of the island Juist, Germany. He is part of the first group of released seals of the seal breeding station Norddeich this year. (Photo by Carmen Jaspersen/DPA via AP Photo)

In this photo taken late Thursday, May 7, 2015, a prison guard, left, and seated inmates cast shadows on a wall while waiting for the beginning of a rock concert by Romanian band Pro Musica, inside the Popa Sapca jail in Timisoara, western Romania. (Photo by Adi Piclisan/AP Photo)

The hard-worked hands of Jacaba Coaquira, 80, holding the green beans she grew on her land. This year the production of her land was affected by lack of rain and early cold weather that froze the crops before they finished growing. Santiago de Okola, Bolivia. (Photo by Renée C. Byer/Living on a Dollar a Day)

A dog looks at a five-meter-long sperm whale stranded at San Bartolo beach, in Lima, on August 20, 2019. Surfers and policemen saved Tuesday an injured whale which remained stranded some hours at a beach in southern Lima, police informed. (Photo by Ernesto Benavides/AFP Photo)

Participants take pictures of themselves as others run past the Tiananmen gate during the Beijing Marathon in Beijing, China, September 17, 2016. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Concertgoers dance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, U.S., April 15, 2018. Coachella became one of the world' s premier music festivals not only for the A- list performers. The two- weekend party in the California desert has become a major event in its own right for the fashion. While designers have heavily marketed their brands to Coachella, the fans who draw the most notice often do so by embracing their own sartorial flair, driven by a sense of innovation and, among revelers in the searing heat, of inhibition. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

A grey seal basks under a rainbow on a beach on the Lincolnshire coast, England on November 21, 2017. (Photo by Sean Weekly/Caters News Agency)